Shorouk Express
Nevertheless, the spokesperson said, “the EU would respond firmly to any trading partner that unfairly or arbitrarily imposes tariffs on EU goods.”
France’s Industry Minister Marc Ferracci went further, demanding a “biting” response from Brussels, which manages trade relations on behalf of the EU’s 27 member countries.
“Trade negotiations with Donald Trump must assume a form of power dynamic,” Ferracci told France Info on Sunday.
Given Trump’s threats to impose tariffs against the EU, “it is obvious that we must react,” Ferracci said, although he added that “we are waiting for the American administration’s decisions on what will concern Europe.”
Ferracci added that for countermeasures to be effective, “the response must focus on products that are important” to the U.S and that “it must be ‘biting,’ meaning it should have an impact on the American economy to have a credible threat in negotiations.” He called on Brussels to not be naive and draw up a “Buy European Act.”
In contrast, German Finance Minister Jörg Kukies urged Europeans to keep calm and carry on. “One should not react to the first decisions with panic, but see them as the beginning of the negotiations and not as the end,” he was quoted as saying by Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung during a trip to the Persian Gulf on Sunday.
